Alberta ministers to fight new federal rules for energy projects

CALGARY — Alberta cabinet ministers are heading to Ottawa to push for changes to federal legislation that would overhaul energy project reviews.

Alberta Premier Rachel Notley said Tuesday that Energy Minister Margaret McCuaig-Boyd and Environment Minister Shannon Phillips will make Alberta’s case to the Senate that Bill C-69 needs to be fixed.

“We need to stop the regulatory merry-go-round, not supercharge it,” Notley said in a speech to the International Pipeline Conference. “We need to improve our competitive position, not make it harder to get things built.”

The bill would create a new Impact Assessment Agency and replace the National Energy Board with the Canadian Energy Regulator.

It introduces new timelines and specific steps that companies and governments will have to follow for new energy projects to go ahead.

Notley said she wants the legislation to spell out that downstream emissions — from the burning of the fossil fuels — would be excluded from reviews.

She said uncertainty about review timelines, and the criteria by which projects will be judged, need to be cleared up.

“It’s also a major overreach of federal jurisdiction into our province’s right to develop and control our own resources — something Albertans have a lot more experience at than folks from Ottawa.”

Notley told reporters she has no quibbles with creating a regulatory regime that Canadians trust.

“I support their intent, but you need to really engage, really carefully, to make sure that you don’t kill yourself with good intentions,” she said.

McCuaig-Boyd said her office has not been told the date when she’ll have her say in the Senate.

In the meantime, she said she’ll be refining the message she plans to send.

“Maybe a little storytelling mixed in with it: This is what the impact means to Alberta.”

The Canadian Energy Pipeline Association slammed the potential legislation last March, saying: “If the goal is to curtail oil and gas production and to have no more pipelines built, this legislation has hit the mark.”

Following Notley’s speech Tuesday, association president and CEO Chris Bloomer said the premier’s tough language was welcome.

“We said from the outset that this bill does not provide the clarity and certainty that the government was trying to achieve,” he said.